


A Year Later: Joseph

by ashe_urbanipal



Series: A Year Later: Dream Daddy [4]
Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Divorce, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Friendship, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Marriage, Minor Violence, Separation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 02:04:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11910948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashe_urbanipal/pseuds/ashe_urbanipal
Summary: They said they'd work on their marriage, but not everything is salvageable. Sometimes it takes a friend to see that.





	A Year Later: Joseph

**Author's Note:**

> This one is short, but was really cathartic. Fuck Joseph

The bright sound of ice clinking against glass punctuates the gentle murmur of Jim and Kim's. Mary, Robert, and I sit in one of our usual corner booths. Some nights are "watch Mary flirt with unsuspecting twenty-somethings" night. Some nights are "throw rocks at stop signs" nights. Some nights are "call it slightly early to let Robert take advantage of my need for validation and desire to sleep with hot guys" nights.

This night is none of those.

Tonight we've all just settled on the fact that we're terrible parents and our lives are a mess to varying degrees, but there's also nothing we can do about it at the moment. So we might as well drink the hell up.

Amanda wanted distance. I can respect that. She was right in that we both really needed it. I had gotten a phone call from her for the first time in months telling me she landed safely with her host family in France. An e-mail told me about her acceptance to the semester long art program only about two months ago, and details had been sparse. All communication had. Maybe it was for the best.

Hugo and Damien pass by the window of the bar hand in hand, and I let out an involuntary grunt of disgust.

"I told you I could hook you and Dames up, but noooooo," Mary says lightly.

"He's just a little too weird. I can't deal," I respond.

"I keep telling you he's more normal than you think."

"Whatever. They're a cute couple. They deserve each other."

Becoming friends with Mary wasn't an all at once thing, but it was still insanely weird. After the...unpleasantness...with Joseph, I didn't think she'd ever want to talk with me again. She was the one to come and sit next to me at the bar, though,  and initiate conversation the night after Amanda left for school. Then I found out about Robert and Joseph. That's when I realized what we had all formed was less a friendship and more of an alliance. A tiny coalition of people who had been both metaphorically and quite literally screwed by Joseph Christiansen in various ways.

"I'm beat. I'm gonna go home and hit the hay," Robert says, squeezing me on the knee under the table. His glance dips low at me, and he raises an eyebrow.

"Have a good night," I say pointedly. He gives me a small wink as he slides out of the booth. The back door will be left unlocked in case I change my mind. I've told him we need to stop a hundred times. A hundred times, still, I've banged the ever loving shit out of him, so I can't blame him for not taking my words at face value.

I know what this behaviour is, though. It's self-destructive and dangerous, and I fell into it most recently when I lost Alex. They only thing that kept me from spiraling out of control at the time was Amanda. Without her around…..

"Want me to get Neil to set you up another?" Mary leans over to me, her hand resting loosely on the top of her vodka on the rocks. I shake my head. She's actually been drinking less and less since we started spending time together. I'm not a heavy drinker, really, so I think she doesn't feel the need to, either. I don't know. She definitely talks about her kids more.

"I think I'll head out a little early, too. The twins have their final rehearsal for the church's summer pageant tomorrow, and I said I'd come help get all the costumes finished or whatever. It's this Saturday. You should come see it. I might need to tap you for some extra help on the punch bowl." I give a little noncommittal shrug, and Mary smiles at me. "Catch you later, stud." She pats me on the head on her way out. I stare down at my half-empty whiskey sour. I can stay here and finish it or take Robert up on his innuendo or go home and try to bury myself in _Real Crimes: Boise._ Either way it's going to be a long night.

 

I don't know why I'm here for this thing, but I at least found someone interesting to sit next to.

"I didn't take you for the churchgoing type, Mat."

He looks up at me as I pull up to the aisle where he's sitting.

"Not really," he says quietly and pats the seat next to him. "One of Carmensita's friends in the school choir is also in the youth choir here, and they needed some extra voices or something. I don't really know, but she'll take any chance to sing she can get." I nod. The girl's good. I've heard her at open mic night at the coffee house.  

"But what are _you_ doing here?" he asks.

"Man, I barely know myself. Mary asked to me to help with the refreshment table afterward, though, so I guess I'm here to support the kids?"

Mat gives me a skeptical look, and I don't blame him.

A tap moves through the speakers hanging from the ceiling of the sanctuary, and we cringe at the sound.

"Hello, everyone!" Joseph is at the microphone, white knuckling it nervously. "Thank you for joining us for the summer pageant. The kids have pulled together a great program for you, so, without further ado, the music director!" Joseph passes the mic over to a very affable looking middle-aged woman in a flowery skirt and cream-colored blouse. Joseph moves down the center aisle toward the back of the hall. He nods to Mat with a smile as he approaches. For just an instant as he passes, though, he squints his eyes at me and sneers. In the blink of an eye, he's back to the pleasant youth pastor, though, and I feel a knot in my gut.

This is the part I can't stand, and I don't know how Robert's done it for this long. Come to think of it, he keeps his distance from the family, at large, though. But not me, no. I'm so desperate to be a part of a family again no matter how dysfunctional that I have to borrow Mary's on occasion. Bake sales. Youth functions. Anything Mary's forced to go to, she finds ways to drag me along. Which means I have to see _him_ far more often than I'd like, considering.

It wasn't that difficult, at first. We were able to actually kinda sorta remain friends. I thought we could put the whole fiasco behind us. Then a switch flipped. I don't know what happened, but now he can't hide his utter disdain for me. Not totally sure what I did to deserve it, but as long as he keeps it civil I guess...I don't know. I don't know what it means.

 

I wake up startled to a banging on my front door. Probably shouldn't have fallen asleep on the couch, but I wasn't expecting anyone to just show up on my doorstep at noon on a weekday. I stumble my way to the door as the banging continues. I take a look through the peephole. It's Joseph.

I fling the door open quickly.

"Joseph, oh my god! Is everything okay? The kids? Mary?"

"Oh. Worried about Mary are we, you son of a bitch." Joseph takes a swing at me. It doesn't connect, but not for lack of trying. My half dodge was enough to avoid it, though.

"What the absolute hell Joseph?!" I scream at him. "Come inside." I grab him by the collar and pull him into my living room. "What the shit is this?"

"Are you sleeping with her? Huh? Is that it?" He's breathing and heaving, his shoulders hunched in anger and desperation.

"I am very very _very_ gay, dude. This is a well-known fact."

"Then what bullshit have you been feeding her?"

He's still insatiably mad, and now I'm just annoyed. I put my hands out in front of me in a sort of half shushing motion.

"I don't know what you're talking about, so you better tell me what I'm supposedly guilty of, soon."

"She left me. Says she's staying with her brother with the baby if I need her. Thank God the older ones are at bible school."

"Then go over there and talk to her. Don't drag me into this."

"Damien won't let me talk to her, and that doesn't matter. She left me divorce papers on the kitchen counter."

Oh. Well. This is a little more serious. But still not my business. I'm irritated, though.

"Good," I say simply. He pushes me.

"So you did say something to her?!"

"The only thing I've ever said to Mary is that she deserves to be happy. And it's true. She deserves to be in a marriage where she feels wanted and loved. Where she truly feels like the queen of her household. And she's, obviously, not finding that with you."

He sneers at me like he always does.

I'm starting to understand what's happening.

"Oh… I get it, now." I seethe. "You can go away and sleep on your sex yacht when things get a little dicey, and that's all well and good. The minute she says that she's had enough, though, and wants to end it, you're all big man throwing punches at her friends because heaven forbid-" this time he clocks me in the jaw. His wedding band grazes my chin, cutting it open. It stings, but by the way he's holding his fist to his chest, only half as much as his hand.

"She doesn't have a right to just _leave_ ," Joseph spits. "Not after everything I've gone through with her. We said we'd try to make it work. She doesn't get to just _give up_ on us."

"And what were you doing when you were fucking me on your boat, Joseph?" I'm spitting now, too, but it's blood from my cut lip. "'Waaa waaa my marriage is falling apart, and I just want to be happy again.' That's what you told me, right? Tell that to Robert, too?" Joseph goes pale. He didn't know I knew, it seems. "How many others were there?"

"There weren't-"

"Bullshit. You just only go caught twice."

He growls at me.

"Right. Blame it all on me while she's out flirting with every guy in town."

"I never said she was perfect. She loves you and the kids so much, though. But she's breaking under the pressure of being married to the youth minister. The perfect man. The golden boy." She might not remember telling me this. I barely remember it myself, we were so hammered. There were hot tears and shaking hands, though, in the back corner of the pub. That I can recall with crystal clarity. "Being Mary Christiansen is too much and she can't take it and she just wants you to _see_ her." I spit again as blood fills up my mouth. "But you're too busy with your Margarita zone and your knots and maintaining your perfect little WASPy suburban life to notice that your marriage has fallen completely apart."

Joseph is faltering, his flared nostrils the only thing left still consumed by rage. The rest of him is defeat and uncertainty. He knows what I'm saying is right, but he's still so mad. So angry. At himself, hopefully, the bastard.

"You know just as well as I do that sometimes you just can't save it. So what are you gonna do? You gonna man up, or whine like a little baby and blame everyone else for your problems?"

Joseph makes another low rumble in his chest at me.

"This isn't the end of this conversation," he threatens.

"Good. Have the other half with Mary. Now get out of my house before I call the police and have you arrested for assault."

"I was already leaving." He turns on his heel, yanks the door open, and slams it behind him as he leaves.

I collapse to the floor, every ounce of energy gone, zapped by my rage. I stare at the doorknob, considering it. I find my cellphone somewhere in my pocket and send a quick text to Mary giving her a highly paraphrased version of what happened and telling her she can call me for help if needed. She won't respond right away, but it's something.

Only a year ago I had lamented that a new romantic start for me was going to come at the expense at the ending of someone else's. And yet only now, in the midst of decay, did it feel like there was a new beginning on the horizon...for one person, at least.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Joseph and Mary hit close to home. It's hard watching the marriage of someone you love fall apart, especially when infidelity and substance abuse are involved. I almost had Dadsona throwing punches in this, but I decided he's classier than that.


End file.
